Adoption Registry Makes Tiny Splash

A state registry that was intended to help thousands of adopted children locate their natural parents has been virtually ignored by those it was supposed to help, according to state records.

The Illinois Adoption Registry, which will be two years old on Thursday, was created to reunite parents and children whose search for one another is often stymied by adoption court records that are closed to protect privacy.

For a $40 fee, the Illinois Department of Public Health will register a parent or child and search its files to determine if the child or parent being sought also has registered.

Adoption groups said when the law was passed that the registry wouldn`t work and complained that it was approved by the Illinois legislature to stall their efforts to open up adoption records.

State figures show the critics may have been right. In two years, the adoption registry has matched just one parent with a child.

The potential clientele for the registry is large. An estimated 7,000 to 10,000 adoptions are completed every year in Illinois, and hundreds of people launch efforts annually to find lost parents, children or siblings.

Some go to legitimate groups that aid such searches, but others pay as much as $10,000 to unscrupulous lawyers and investigators who make little or no effort to complete a search.

Yet, despite the potential for the Illinois program, only 89 people have registered: 52 mothers, 34 children and 3 fathers.

``It`s lower than what we anticipated when we first went into it,`` said Aaron Vangeison, a deputy state registrar who oversees the adoption registry. ``We figured when word got around, (registrations) would pick up. But I anticipated three or four times as many as now.``

The registry has operated in virtual anonymity, with no budget for publicity and a state directive that limits the release of information.

The public health department made no effort to publicize its first match. Although state law prohibits the release of adoption information that would identify parent or child, the department also refuses to provide

nonidentifying information about its lone success story.

``It`s just a policy we made,`` said Faye Burns, an administrative clerk and supervisor of the registry.

The state registry also has been hampered because of its $40 registration fee. Other not-for-profit registries charge no fees.

Directors of the International Soundex Reunion Registry, in Carson City, Nev., a free registry, said they have 30,000 registrations and have reunited more than 1,200 people.

``We tell people the state registry is there, if they want to spend the $40. But we recommend they use the free registries,`` said Barbara Gonyo, president of Truth Seekers In Adoption, an Illinois group that provides low-cost assistance for adoption searches.

``Why should a child pay for the Illinois registry when the birth mother might not even know it exists?`` Gonyo said. ``That registry was created pretty much as a compromise to keep people in the movement quiet. We didn`t really want it. We want open records.``

The quest for open records, though, has been hotly contested in Illinois and other states. Opponents say that providing such information can be an invasion of privacy and that finding a natural parent can be emotionally traumatic and disrupt a family by revealing a long-buried secret.

Truth Seekers and other groups have lobbied for more access to legal records of adoptions for parents and children. They argue a growing number of adopted children need medical information that is withheld and have an emotional need to learn about their past.

But lawmakers have balked at such proposals.

``We don`t want to get into that. It`s too controversial,`` said State Rep. John Cullerton (D., Chicago), who sponsored the law creating the registry. ``That used to be an incredibly emotional issue in Springfield.``

Cullerton said he will seek funds next year to more widely publicize the registry, but he also rejects any suggestion that it has failed.

``It`s a good concept. The problem is that it hasn`t been marketed by the department of health,`` Cullerton said. ``People are just not aware of it.``

State public health officials conceded that they have made little effort to publicize the registry, although they are preparing a brochure to distribute to adoption groups. Registration forms are available from the Division of Vital Records, Department of Public Health, in Springfield.

State officials also said they can`t estimate if the registry is a moneymaker or a money loser, because it does not have a separate appropriation in the public health budget. The registry, which has two state employees working part-time to keep up its files, has drawn in $3,500 in fees from registrants.

But the advocates of open records said that even if the registry does draw more publicity, it isn`t likely to succeed.